CURRENT MISSION

Find a way of being useful to humanity while feeling smart!

ABOUT ME

I'm always puzzled by the world, and strive to understand as much as possible about it, while fully aware of the ultimate futility of this quest.

That makes me a more thoughtful and less cheery person than most, but I tend to forget about the large issues and just have fun when the opportunity arises.

PHILOSOPHY

All hail Discordia! I've confused myself enough through my education that I believe it's impossible to be consistent in your views and beliefs, so I like to poke holes in other people's beliefs to bring them over to my point of view.

Por qué estoy en Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I kept meeting fun people who were friends' CouchSurfing acquaintances, so I thought I should give it a try myself - in the mean time, I've met a couple of travellers for fun interactions and hosted a little, all to great fun!

Intereses

I love pretty much all things intellectual. I'm fairly knowledgeable about some corners of mathematics, physics and computer science and love to have dilettantic discussions about everything else - economics, history, philosophy, sociology, psychology, maybe I'll even talk politics or religion with the not-so-easily offended (I'm a huge cynic, you know).

I'm also hugely in love with classical music and retain a fond memory of hip hop culture from the ancient days. Since Vienna is, at least in its own pretensions, a capital of the classical music world, I'm always up for going to concerts or the opera together, just let me know.

Then, there's food. I love cooking in general, and especially spice-heavy things like Indian or other Southeast Asian things. Nothing like a good chili high!

Since I read a lot, I'm also a fairly useful source of trivia knowledge and used to go to pub quizzes a lot. Guinness and discussion, how could you beat that? Sadly, my team is always lacking sports knowledge, and to a lesser degree, pop music knowledge, so I'm always looking for help!

• culture
• singing
• concerts
• education
• dining
• cooking
• wine
• red wine
• running
• pub crawls
• politics
• trivia
• traveling
• drawing
• music
• classical music
• piano
• opera
• sports
• computer science
• economics
• teaching
• history
• mathematics
• physics
• psychology
• religion
• science
• sociology
• software

Música, películas y libros

I read everything. Really. Can't stop doing it. Books, newspapers, ads on the subway, backsides of public transport tickets. My two bookshelves are bursting, but I don't have room for a third one, and the aesthetically pleasing ones I want are also way too expensive.

For relaxation, I enjoy science fiction (Alastair Reynolds and Charlie Stross are some recent favourite authors, but I tend to go crazy and just read an author's entire oeuvre once I like one book). I'm also fascinated by Thomas Pynchon (who makes me laugh) and David Foster Wallace (who makes me want to alternately laugh and cry) and James Joyce (who makes me want to stab him in the eye for the layers and layers and layers of decrypting).

Movies? I'm not a cinema person, but I liked everything I ever saw that was made by Stanley Kubrick, Woody Allen or Monty Python. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was also great, one of the few movies that actually beat the book they're based on IMO.

Music: Yeah, a fun one. I spent my adolescence in love with then-current underground hip-hop and everything that surrounded it and have the outdated CD/vinyl collection to show for it. In recent years, I've gravitated more towards classical music of all sizes and shapes, along with other things I found interesting (I have, for example, a large collection of Irish folk songs and have spent some time researching their background stories). More typically Viennese, I enjoy a good Wienerlied, especially if it's one of the cynical backstabbing ones!

Stuff that moved me recently: Chopin's Op.53, Brahms' German Requiem, the fourth movement of Dvorak's Symphony #9, the third movement of Bruckner's symphony #3, the Bach chello suites, Bach's violin concerto BWV 1042 (which I was pretty sure was what Douglas Adams was talking about in Dirk Gently, but I have since found out I was mistaken).

Algo increíble que he hecho

I've had a bottle of red wine with friends at 2 am in an underground cavern dedicated to an LHC experiment. I ran into a 600 m cliff drop when misnavigating in the Swiss alps. I understood Noether's theorem.

Enseña, aprende, comparte

I'm an officially rubber-stamped physicist with some experience in particle physics and quantum cryptography research, so I can probably tell you about that. I also have a life long fascination with computers and lots of professional software experience to draw from.

Not sure about cooking - I love doing it and think I'm not the worst, but I keep running into people who are so much more amazing at it that I'm sure there's so much more to learn. Also, cooking together is a great way to make friends!

Music's kind of a weak spot of mine - I had a bad experience in a music school when I was six years old and never learned to play or sing anything afterwards, but now, almost 25 years later, I'm starting to feel I should. If you have the patience to teach me a few more Ukulele songs or are travelling with a grand piano and want to teach me Chopin's Op.53 in an evening, you're welcome!

Países que he visitado

China, Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Switzerland, United Kingdom

Países en los que he vivido

Austria, France, Germany, Switzerland

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